I am soooooooo bad! I haven’t blogged in ages so I’m going to get right on with it!
Week 29
Week 29 was my good deed week and other than giving Isis a haircut, not much else happened – it was a good week though! I’ve started a new experiment; I’m keeping a journal in my filofax (I was keeping a separate A5 filo as a journal, but didn’t keep up with it). Whenever I want more detail about something (such as my good deed); I write it out onto filofax paper and then stick it in the middle of that week – that way everything to do with that week is there in the same place and I haven’t got to wonder if I wrote a journal entry about something!
Week 30
Week 30 was a bit more packed!
Faux Cashmere
It saw the end of the Tour de Fleece – I will admit I didn’t get a lot done, my knees just wouldn’t let me! I did spin up a skein of faux cashmere that I started on spindles ages ago. Got it finished and it’s gorgeous! I really enjoyed spinning it once I got going with it.
I also mastered longdraw and I was very pleased with myself for doing so!
On Monday, we had our property inspection and that went well and also Mel came to stay for a couple of days!
That was the start of three days of manic shopping!
We went everywhere! I didn’t buy a lot, but it was the chance to get to shops I can’t get to now and we looked round loads!
On Wednesday, Isis went in to be spayed. It was awful! I wasn’t allowed to feed her from 8pm on Tuesday night and no water for an hour before we left.
The vet was a teeny little place in Bitterne and the staff were lovely.
They took her temperature and then took me round the back so I could settle her into a cage – I was quite surprised at that as usually, they just take your dog and throw you out LOL. I felt guilty as I couldn’t give her a treat and then I left her on her own in a strange place!
I left her with my t-shirt and her toy octopus though and hoped she didn’t cry too much – I never leave her alone, you see.
Then Mel dragged me off for breakfast at Ikea and another day of shopping to keep me distracted.
By 11.45 the vet called to say she was all done and awake and I could collect her at 4pm!
It was very hot and I was wearing boots as the doctor told me flip flops were aggravating my plantar fasciitis, I just got hotter and hotter.
At the end of the afternoon, I went and visited ShopMobility in West Quay to find out what it was all about. Basically, anyone can register and then you pay £4 per hire for a mobility scooter – the hire can last all day until 6pm. You can also pay £7.50 a year which reduces your hire down to £3, this is better if you’re a regular customer.
When the summer is over, Mum & I are going to have a go!
I left there and then headed for Toys R Us carpark which is where Mel & I were supposed to meet (she’d popped to Asda) and on the way started to feel quite ill!
By the time I got to the car, I knew I was going to be sick at some point, it was inevitable!
I made it to the vet simply because we wound both windows down and the draft helped loads! But when I got there, I had to go and be sick in their loo!
The staff were lovely and someone waited for me and they kept asking if I was ok. Then they bought Isis out to me, they carried her out and said she was fine, just feeling a bit sorry for herself. They handed her to me and she went straight into cuddle mode with her belly against me.
I thanked them and we left, I cuddled her instead of putting her on the back seat to stop her hurting herself.
Halfway home, my phone rang – I nearly didn’t answer it as I was very low on battery and I didn’t recognise the number – I still felt awful too. But I did answer it and this voice asked if I was Sam, I said ‘yes’.
He then said ‘this is Paul’ I was nonplussed and asked ‘who?’ then he said ‘you held my head’ – it was my good deed guy! He was phoning to say thank you and that he couldn’t believe a complete stranger had sat in a pile of nettles and held his head! Apparently, he had aggravated his back, but he was ok.
I really didn’t think he’d call me, but I’m overjoyed that he did.
On Thursday, Isis and I rested – I had a thumping headache from the heatstroke and she didn’t feel up to moving around. We did manage to get her to eat a little, drink and she urinated. So I was happy.
On Saturday, I went to Fibre East with Jane & Kirsten. It was fun, but the venue was totally not disabled friendly – it was held in a college and there were stairs everywhere!
The best bit about it was Jane, Kirsten and I singing along to Queen at the top of our voices for the whole journey home!
Alex informed me that Isis had done a little poo that afternoon.
Week 31
Week 31 started great; Isis was feeling much better and did a proper poo, although she still didn’t feel like moving around much, but who can blame her!
I filed a complaint with Virgin Media about their service as we were still having TV and broadband problems – I haven’t heard from them yet, so I doubt a complaint was actually logged!
Monday, Alex went to an interview at Totton College. The woman was very friendly and said that she’d sign him up to do English & Math and would also put him on a IT course. He has to go back in the last week of August to be assessed so they know what level of English & Math and he’ll start in September.
On Tuesday, Virgin Media came out and examined all our equipment AGAIN! Said there was nothing wrong with it and the fault must be with the exchange.
On Thursday, a man came out to look at the cooker as it’s developed this intermittent problem of the oven switching itself off when I’m cooking, he didn’t find anything wrong with it.
On Friday, I ordered my miniSpinner! I was going to get someone to bring it back from Rhinebeck for me, but the woman who offered is someone that I only really know on twitter and then, not that well. It’s an expensive bit of kit to trust to someone you don’t know well. So, when Claire said she was going to order one, I ordered as well.
On Saturday, Isis had her stitches out, we were glad to get them out as she was starting to jump on furniture and I was worried about her ripping them.
Week 32
Week 32 started off with spending an hour on the phone with 3 (they called me) and getting Kyle & Alex’s contracts reduced to £15 each! Then I called Virgin Media and spoke to Mark. I explained the problem (again) to him and he decided that we needed to upgrade our broadband, which we did!
Then he said he would email our area manager about getting the TiVo sorted and would call me the next day.
The upgrading of the broadband seems to have solved our problems, but he didn’t call me the next day!
On Tuesday, I was woken at 8.30 by the doorbell and it was a Virgin Media engineer. I quickly explained everything and he decided that the only thing left to try was swapping my TiVo box for a new one.
He tried two different boxes, but they were both faulty then the third one worked.
I haven’t had a chance to test if streaming live stuff on the red button works yet, so watch this space.
At the weekend, I went to the Isle of Wight for Jack Up The 80′s – an open air music festival run by radio station JackFM.
It was really good, it was opened by a local group called Matchbox who sang more 60′s stuff than 80′s. Then Bootleg Blondie came on, she was quite good and got us in the mood. Doctor & The Medics followed her and he was excellent, then Katrina & The Waves came on – she was fabulous! She sang Walking On Sunshine which was fab to hear live, but her rendition of River Deep, Mountain High was awesome! The Lambrettas were after her, followed by Bad Manners.
It as a great day and I got totally sunburnt LOL
We went again on Sunday and listened to Orange Street, Eddie & The Hotrods, Junior Giscombe, Toyah, Hoosiers and Heaven 17. And yes, I knit ALL day!
I left after Toyah as I wanted to get home Sunday night and I had planned to visit Arnie and his family on the way home.
Coming home Sunday was a bad idea; there were no ferry-train link buses running and no Southampton-Romsey buses either, so I had to walk from the RedJet to the train station, then catch the train to Romsey.
It was infuriating, I called Alex and asked if he’d meet me at Romsey station with Isis (I knew she wouldn’t have had any exercise) but he said no as he was doing a personal challenge to stream gameplay for 10 hours.
I was really hurt by that!
Then I had to wait half an hour for a train, when it arrived; the last three carriages were locked, so I had to walk the length of three carriages to get to an open one. Then when the train pulled into Romsey, it pulled in so ALL the carriages were in line with the platform so I then had to walk the length of all three closed carriages just to get off the bloody platform!
Then I had to walk home, by myself!
By the time I got back, I was exhausted and my knees hurt!
They hurt so much that I had to sleep with a pillow under them that night to support them and I made an appointment the next day to see a doctor as they swelled up overnight. Unfortunately, it’s ten days until I can get to see someone.
The swelling has gone down quite a lot, but the right knee still feels very tender and delicate!